[Cooter]

EAT...

THE most anabolic substance you can take is food... you can take all the steroids in the world and lift all the weights you want, but if you don't EAT, you're never going to add any mass... it's simple physics, your body needs fuel... energy... calories...

today I kept a journal of what I ate... I didn't eat as often as I'd like, but that's going to change.

meal 1: 5 whole eggs + 2 egg whites, three slices of buttered toast, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter

meal 2: 1 can of tuna with mustard, 1 cup of rice, 1/2 a chicken breast, 1/2 a baked yam, two big shots of flax seed oil

meal 3: 5 whole eggs + 2 egg whites, three slices of toast, 2tbsp peanut butter, 8oz 2% milk

meal 4: meal replacement shake

meal 5: one Whataburger

estimated grand totals?

3200 calories, 220g protein

NOT ENOUGH!

my goal is 4k a day with over 3k coming from whole foods. gonna be splitting it up into 7-8 meals...

I cooked up 6lbs of ground beef tonight and ~20cups of brown rice...

do yourself a favor, mix up your protein sources... I speak from experience when I tell you you'll get burnt out QUICK on 5 cans of tuna a day or two dozen eggs a day, etc.

oh, and get some ginger root caps as they aid in protein digestion, and I like mustard with lots of stuff as it helps w/ digestion.

eating is the most difficult component of building muscle... lifting weights is the fun part... sleeping is cool too (make sure you're getting your 8hrs! that's when your body takes that food and uses it to rebuild your muscles!)

Forrest

 

[Todd]

So, how bad is it to get a lot of that from Protein shakes? I eat a ton of those a day.

I watched everything I ate the other day and I ended up with right at 3100 cal and just over 300 grams of protein. A lot of that was shakes though. I was eating or drinking or both every 2 - 2.5 hours that day.

 

[AL P]

You also have to remember that you can only absorb so much protein in one sitting...like 35 grams depending on your size of course.

Also, not only sleep good but take a nap if you have time, those little 30 minute to one hour naps alwasy make me feel a lot better when I am sore.

You should be as lazy as possible when trying to build mass except when in the gym.

 

[Cooter]

well, I've always been told and have always believed that real food is better... they are naturally balanced, and I'd venture that you probably absorb more.

and, it depends on what brand of shake you're buying... unfortunately, you can't always trust the label to tell you exactly what's in there. with food, it is what it is...

shakes can get expensive too...

but, I definately think they have their place... I plan on using one, but I'm going to try to get as much as I can from real food.

if you're going to be taking a lot of meal replacements, be sure to take some supplimental fiber and get some flax seed oil.

and, as always, drink lotsa water!

Forrest

 

[AL P]

I been doing that Atkins diet shit for the past 4 or 5 days and I'm liking it. I went over to Sonny Bryan's on saturday and got a pound of brisket and ate the hell out of it all weekend. I usually take a designer protein shake in the morning, lots of meat during the day, some sausage and shit too, then a designer protein shake at night. i'm gonna throw some turkey and chicken in there later but for now I like the read meat because the fat gives me some energy.

We will see how it works, the protein has got to be pretty high, if I can get down to 195 to 197 pounds I'll be happy.

 

[Cooter]

atkins works... allows you to shed fat without burning a bunch of muscle... but damn man, it drives me crazy... good luck w/ it man!

 

[Big A]

I'm trying to get my calories up too, but without alot of added fat so I'm eating alot of chicken, oatmeal, and protien shakes. Eating for growth isn't much easier than dieting down when you try to stay strict. I'd love to go all out and eat pizza, peanut butter, red meat, etc, but come trimming time I don't wanna have to deal with dropping alot of bodyfat.

 

[CobraMike]

I recently designed myself a new diet after recovering from a shoulder injury and losing 20 pounds. I am taking in about 4,300 calories per day, and about 300 grams of protein. I currently have gained about 6 pounds in 1.5 months which was my goal...~1 lb per week. That way I don't become a fatass! I am eating 4 meals and drinking 3. Eventually I will phase over to eating more of the meals, but it does get expensive.

And AL P said it best: "You should be as lazy as possible when trying to build mass except when in the gym." AMEN!!!

 

[Cooter]

this is fucking painful... I got down ~1300 relatively clean calories down before noon... my sister invited me to her companies thanksgiving party. I figured it'd be a good place to get some good food... I COULD NOT eat ANYTHING... made me nauseous!

it's now 2:30... I gotta go choke down some more food!

Forrest

 

[CobraMike]

Forrest, that's why the liquid shakes are easier when you are trying to take in that many calories. Your body absorbs the liquid a lot faster than it can digest the food. I am drinking ~850 calorie shakes 2 hours before I eat a 700 calories lunch. I can recommend some good weight gainer products if you want. Let me know.

 

[Cooter]

Mike,

funny you mention it... I wussed out and made a shake! LOL!

Forrest

 

[CobraMike]

 

[Todd]

I've been using Optimum Nutrition's Whey Protein. It is not a weight gainer type with lots of calories and one scoop is like 22 grams of protein, but it tastes great with skim milk which has 8 - 9 grams of protein per cup. I mix it with 2 cups of milk and about 1.5 - 1.75 scoops of protein. This makes about 350 calories and 53 grams of protein.

Not too expensive where I get it - there is a small discount drug store here that buys is in huge quantities in the smaller packaging and it is about $12. for that. The same stuff in the larger quantity package is the same higher price as everywhere else and much more per lb.

Anyway , I drink one of those at about 7:30AM and around 9:45AM, then I have been eating a chicken breast and drinking a partial shake for lunch which ends up being 55 grams of protein and a little over 400 cal. then at about 2:00 PM and at 4:00PM more shakes and then dinner and depending on the protein in that I may have another partial shake, or maybe just 2 cups of milk. Then around 8:00 pr 9:00 I have another shake.

At the end of the day I have taken in about 350 - 370 grams of protein and about 2500 plus calories. I can see that I need more calories there.

I was told before that the body could absorb about 47 grams of protein at a time and that the whey shakes' protein would be in the system about 2 hours so I try to spread it out to accomodate that schedule. I also heard tha tit is better to err on the high side on the protein so if I am only using 35 or 40 then I got that much there.

Yesterday I went with tuna and rice for lunch and that added more cal. and I think I ended up a the end of the day with like 3400 callories after all was done for the day.

Anyone got any suggestions for me?

 

[CobraMike]

Todd, sounds like you are getting plenty of protein. I have found that most of the weight gainers calories are from carbs, and not protein. So when I mix a shake I add a few scoops of protein. This brings the protein content up as well as the calories. My protein of choice is the EAS Simply Protein, Rich chocolate. I believe it tastes better than the Optimum Nutrition. Just my $.02

 

[Lethal]

How can I find out how many calories I need? I'm currently (as of last night) 193, and still wanting 7 more lbs.

 

[Todd]

Todd, sounds like you are getting plenty of protein. I have found that most of the weight gainers calories are from carbs, and not protein. So when I mix a shake I add a few scoops of protein. This brings the protein content up as well as the calories. My protein of choice is the EAS Simply Protein, Rich chocolate. I believe it tastes better than the Optimum Nutrition. Just my $.02

Yeah it probably does taste a little better, but I am on the super low $ program , so my choices are limited by the price too. I have not found anything that gives me this much for the price. I can't wait to get to where I can try some others though.

I used to use GNC's Weight gainer 1800 a long time ago and I remember that tasted great but I think I was reading abotu it lately and the numbers were not what I was looking for.

I was just looking more on optimum nutrition's site at the Meap replacements and they have this "Opti-Pro Meal Packets" and there are 20 packets for about $45.00 - that is like $2.25 a meal.

Still cheaper than eating most meals I guess. and it has 260 cal, 40 grams of pro. I am assuming you mix that with milk also to add abotu 9 - 18 extra grams of proteina nd 90 - 180 more calories. Sounds like a decent deal there too. I may have to save up and spring for that to ge the carbs up some more and it being designed to replace a meal should be better for me than using a whey protein shale as a meal replacement.

 

[Todd]

How can I find out how many calories I need? I'm currently (as of last night) 193, and still wanting 7 more lbs.

A quick search on the internet yielded this from http://www.acefitness.org

A useful rule of thumb is that in order to gain 1 pound of body weight per week, you should consume an additional 500 calories per day above the amount you typically consume. This number varies from person to person (depending on such factors as weight and metabolism), but you get the idea: Eating more than normal is a must if you want to gain weight. Boost your calories by consistently consuming three larger-than-normal meals a day plus two or more snacks during the mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Try to eat foods that are high in calories, but remember to stay away from saturated fats such as cheese, beef, butter and bacon. It's best to stick to a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet that you modify to include larger quantities. This also applies to your intake of protein. Many athletes seeking to gain muscle use protein powders and amino acid supplements. This isn't necessary if you eat the recommended amount of dietary protein (15 percent to 20 percent of daily calories), which is less expensive than buying supplements. To be sure that you are sensibly increasing your caloric intake, make an appointment with a registered dietitian who can help you plan your meals.

 

[CobraMike]

Todd -

Actually the EAS and Optimum protein are the same price, about $30 for the 5lb. tub. As far as the meal replacements go, I think they are a waste. My philosophy (for my body) is to gain weight without adding too much fat. In the past I have tried the Mega Mass and other weight gainers, but they are loaded with sugar. Like 50-60g per shake. I found a Labrada weight gainer called Kwik Size that has only about 4-5g per 700 calorie shake. Here is my cost breakdown for one of my shakes:

Labrada Kwik Size - 4 scoops ~$1.66
EAS Simply Protein - 4 scoops ~$0.75

Calories: 822
Carbs: 126g
Protein: 66g
Sugar: 8g

Total cost: $2.41

So for $0.16 more per shake you get a helluva lot more content. BTW, these are mixed with cold distilled water and blended. Taste is not too bad.

As far as the calories go, basically Todd is right. About 500 more than your body uses. To simplify my diet and not get into the calculations, I am using this formula to find the daily calories I need:

Desired Body Weight (lbs.) x 18 calories/lb

So I am trying to get to 240lbs., so my daily caloric intake should be around 4,300 calories.

 

[Todd]

so based on that if I wanted to weigh about 215 I would need to be eating 3870 callories a day. sounds like a lot for a 172 lb guy.

Should you try to get there in steps though? Or jsut set the callories on high and go for it? Like maybe get set up to get to 185 or something aroud there first then step it up more after that. I am jsut worried about not using all the callories and having to work off a ton of fat later. Am I being stupid there?

 

[CobraMike]

No you're not stupid. You are trying to gain 40 pounds, and that is a lot. The calorie calculation depends on a lot more though, like your metabolism, how active you are, etc. It also has to do with trial and error to see how YOUR body responds. Try and find a health website that will let you calculate how many calories you actually use in one day, and then go from there.